ph2t
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One word, guitar string. You can’t go wrong. Everyone can argue theory till the cows come home. At the end of the day
cause-and-effect is the best way of finding what is best.Here’s some info I posted on another forum:
Guitar String, hell yeah I’m sure…It’s the best antenna in my mind…
1) The antenna is tensile, you can hit obstacles and not worry about it bending, it always retains it’s shape.
2) The antenna is always straight, at 90 degress to the ground. The more right-angled the antenna is to the ground the better reception you get and therefore a longer range is achieved.
3) Looks better, you can hardly see it.
4) With this antenna I’ve achieved an avg 11 meters indoors and over 20 meters outside. (that’s 33′ and 60′ respectively). This includes removing the crip-cap from the car(if it’s there) and tuning the variable inductor on the RX pcb.
5) It’s lighter than CAT5, therefore the moments(interia on the antenna) generated by this length of antenna is less than a CAT5 antenna of same length. This means better balance across the four wheels.
Below is a tutorial I wrote up for a ZipZap SE, the principle is the same though.
Pretty much all you need to do is goto a music store and ask for a Number 9 electric guitar string. If they ask more questions just ask for the “bottom E” the lightest string on the electric guitar.
You need to pull apart the zzse and remove the rear plastic “knob” that holds the pcb down. You will also need to remove the front plastic facia that covers the pcb there as well.
Remove the old antenna and notice where the solder point is. What you want to do is “pre-bend” the string to follow the path of the original yellow (mine was yellow) antenna. See below:
Before bending I put some plastic wire sheath from some hobby wire over the string. I dip the end of the string is a tiny bit of superglue and then feed the wire into the sheath. This allows the plastic cover to stick to the wire and then you can bend it to the shape you need as shown in the picture above.
The following pic gives you an idea of the length, approx 12cm.
Make sure you put a protective cover over the end of the string or at least curl the end around to protect your eyes!
The final pic below shows you how I ran the antenna though the hole of the plastic holder knob thingy……
Hope this works for you. This mod increased the range of my zzse bigtime!
ph2t.
Been so busy I’m still yet to do squat with my alloys. It should be a crime to have alloys and not show them off…..
Actually dude the diode on the pcb IS used for the voltage boost circuit. Trust me, I’ve done the measurements and the research for this. The DCDC convertor used is ME301 and there is a 220uH inductor on the board (axial type) also there is a 100uF 6V electrolytic cap on the board as well.
During various mods I’ve actually broken the diode on the board and substituted it with another diode no sweats. You should use a shottky based one for it’s reduced voltage drop.
The NCP1402 circuit pictured above is the one I use to convert the 1.2V rail from the NiCd and boost it to 5V. From this I’ve been able to run 5 LEDs. 2 White, 2 Blue, 2 Red and 1 Yellow. Yeah!
